(no subject)

Day 01 – Introduce yourself
Day 02 – Your first love
Day 03 – Your parents
( The rest )

Meet Larry & Darlene. Ages 28 & 21, respectively.



On their wedding day. December 15, 1979. I remember this date, because my mom mentioned when I was 13 how that day was their anniversary. I did the math. I said, "SLUT! You were pregnant with me!" She was all "No, I wasn't."

Sassy me: "UH. HELLO. If your anniversary is the middle of December, and I was born in JULY.. YES YOU WERE."

Amused mother: "No. No I wasn't."

Sassy me: "I CAN DO MATH. YOU WERE."

Amused mother: "No, you were there."

Sassy, shocked me: "...."

HAHAHA. She really thought I'd have issues with being a bastard, so she married my dad. I was like, what? It was nearly 1980. What the shit? Ha. But she married him.

For me.

One day I told her to quit blaming that shit on me cause I was there before she was married. She was all "Damn." hahaha... :)

There they are at a club.



At a concert.



My mom's friend Linda recently posted these. Linda had a goal to get as much background in a picture as possible, or that's my theory based on her pictures.

Dad & me, shortly after my birth.



My favorite wee pic of my dad & me.



Not to be left out, my mother & me.



So. My parents had a helluva volatile relationship. She was kind of slutty, he's been clinically diagnosed as a sex addict. He cheated on her several times, beat her, didn't give her money, all sorts of shit.

Eventually his mother grabbed my mom and said to her "GET OUT NOW."

Apparently, she'd had similar issues with her husband.

(my mom's friend Ellen, my mom, the grandfather in question, my dad, and my mom's sister Kathie who is sitting)



One of my first CLEAR AS A BELL memories is my mom leaving my dad. (although, my first memory is from a couple years earlier.) I was 3. She had a garbage bag filled with some of our crap. She told him she was done. He cried. She cried. I was scared. Apparently, in kindergarten, we were told to draw a picture of our parents. This was the scene I drew, 2 years later. The teacher brought my mom in and recommended me for advanced classes. Most other kids drew their parents in front of a house. I drew my mom holding me and a garbage bag in front of a door, leaving, with my dad crying.

ANYRATE.

I wasn't really keen on the dad thing for a while. He eventually needed a place to live, so he lived with us a year when I was like, 10 or something. It was odd for me. He's always been more of a friend than a parent cause as the kid of a single mom, I grew up sort of quick.

My dad, being goofie.



As I've grown up, I get a lot of their relationship. It helps that I'm a more psychologically based creature, and I've gotten to watch my mother's relationship foibles. She requires a partner. REQUIRES. Sometimes (okay, usually) she finds the least suitable mate, and says "I CAN FIX HIM!!! HE NEEDS MEEEE" and lo. I end up with some idiot for a role model. Luckily, only a few of them truly fucked me up.

Mama, skinnie and goth. If only I had ever been that thin.



My mother is married to an idiot today. He's prolly the worst of the bunch. Makes some of the shit my dad did to her look like a walk in the park.

My dad. Well, when he found out my mom was engaged, married his then girlfriend. Had his first child IN wedlock. Then my mom broke off her engagement. I believe, he was devastated.

I truly believe my mother was the love of his life. We've had talks about this.

After 8 years or so in an adult psychiatric prison, he's come into a few discoveries. Right now he's dating a woman named Sue, who I genuinely like. She's a good egg. She takes care of him & my brother, Lorenzo, pretty well. My dad has gotten FAT, and I blame Sue's good cooking.

It's come to the point where he's the more responsible parent, and I'm okay with that. He went from me not really knowing if I'd care when he died, to me actually loving him.

Life isn't so easy. But I'm the forgive but don't forget type.

Rise above, right?

But.

Those are my parents. I look just like both of them.

My father is half Italian (he is first generation, my grandpa came over when he was 18), and Norwegian, Swedish & German.

My mother is half Polish (she is first generation, my grandpa came over when he was a bebe), and English, Scottish & German.

:)